Day 28

I have maintained a daily practice for a whole month! WooHoo! Feels good. Very good actually. On many levels. Physically I am definitely feeling stronger. Mentally, I have been able to focus much better in the last week or so and emotionally I do feel more grounded. A bit more settled. Although I am still working on that. Things still aren't quite "normal" yet. Whatever normal is....maybe I simply need to find a new normal. I suspect that is the case and yes, there is work to be done there.

Day 27

Today, in celebration of completing my final prenatal yoga assignment, I surrendered into a very relaxing and welcome yin practice for my spine. A sequence of forward bends, back bends and twists. Delicious! And just what I needed after all that sitting at a computer these last few days. Correction...make that weeks!

Feels so good to have met my deadline and my back definitely feels better for the yoga.....

Day 26

I'm quite sure that all these sun salutations, warrior poses and arm balances that I feel driven to do during my daily practice at the moment are playing a part in my sudden ability to focus, to concentrate, to power through all the reading, researching and reviewing that I'm doing right now. Yes, it is my fault for leaving it all pretty much to the last minute, circumstances have been unusual lately and I've been procrastinating or simply finding it impossible to focus. Focus on what I should be focusing on, I should add.

Anyway, whatever it's down to, I'm grateful for it. And as much as I miss my husband, I'm also glad of the peace and quiet and space this week which has helped the process along too. Nearly there :-)

Day 25

I haven't really stopped to congratulate myself for getting this far and I should...this is quite something for me! A big turnaround and worthy of note. Personally of course. There are far more amazing things going on out in the big wide world, but in my currently rather small world, this is big. So, duly noted.

Today I was fairly certain that I wouldn't be interrupted by builders walking into my makeshift yoga space (currently the kitchen) so I had a change of routine and enjoyed an hour long practice at my favourite time, late morning. A good balanced practice today. Lovely.

Day 24

I'm not sure if it was yesterday's practice that was responsible for my rare ability to focus so well on my studies today but I didn't want to take any chances, because I still have a few more days of reading, writing and reviewing to go.

Today's practice did echo yesterday's although it was slightly longer.  I enjoyed a very therapeutic slow yang session with lots of long deep breathing to give me energy followed by some delicious yin and a yummy savasana....could have stayed there all evening....but I didn't. Things to do!

Day 23

Today was a significant day. An anniversary of a passing of someone special. 17 years ago.

Rather than sadden me though, it somehow brought more purpose to my day. This person was a wonderful woman who could always bring a smile to my face and was I'd say, quite instrumental in my upbringing in my younger days. She loved to walk...as do I, so today I stopped simply thinking about going out for a walk and actually did it. As I walked, I let myself remember as much as I could about her.

The way she loved to walk
The way she walked so fast that even though I was close to 50 years younger than her I often had to run to keep up with her
The way she loved to dance and would practice her charleston with me
The fat chips she used to make
The way she would almost force feed me oranges because they were filled with vitamin C
The way she always seemed to be happy
The time she let me cuddle up in bed with her when neither of us could sleep as we waited for news from the hospital the night my baby brother (number 1) was born
The way she put way too much salt on everything
The fact that she was a great Nana

It felt good to remember today. It made me smile. As it should do. Time does heal and it helps to be reminded of that at the moment.

What does all this have to do with my yoga practice? To a casual reader, nothing at all, but to me...days like this inspire me to get on my mat for many reasons. I enjoyed a vibrant yang practice followed by a calming yin practice today and it felt good.

Day 22

A fairly average day with not much to report. The basement is coming along nicely, I managed to focus enough to get some of my assignment done and today I was in the mood to up the pace a little on my yoga practice. It must be time...energy levels are on their way up again, which is good and necessary for this week as I'm going to be busy and need all the focus and concentration I can muster for my studies!